Date: Friday , July 30, 2010
Climbing four notches up, India has been ranked the ninth most attractive investment destination in 2009 with a total foreign direct investment inflow of $34.61 billion. India attracted sizeable overseas investment despite the overall drop in such inflows due to the global financial crisis, said the World Investment Report-2010, which was prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

The report noted, “If the situation continues to improve, India is likely to be among the most promising investor home countries in 2010-2012, as well as the third highest economy for foreign direct investment in 2010-2012.”

Rashmi Banga, a Senior Economist at Unctad says, “In 2008, though India attracted higher foreign direct investment worth $40.42 billion, its ranking was lower at 13th. China nudged further up to second position at $95 billion from a third place last year.”

The U.S. remained the top investment destination with inflows of $130 billion in 2009, followed by China, France, Hong Kong, Britain, Russia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, India, and Belgium. Total inflows amounted to $1.11 trillion, against 1.77 trillion in 2008. In 2009, Indian firms and funds also invested a lower amount of $14.89 billion overseas, compared to $18.4 billion in 2008. “But such outflows are expected to rebound in 2010, sustained by merger and acquisition opportunities associated with Indian and Chinese firms’ persistent pursuit of natural resources and markets,” the report says.

The report also revealed that five Indian companies figured in the list of top 100 non-financial trans-national corporations, ranked by their foreign assets overseas. Among them Tata Steel was ranked 15th, the state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation in the 20th position, Hindalco in 29th rank, Tata Motors in 40th position, and Suzlon in 54th.